Exciting News!

I have some exciting news--I'm on the Pretty Pink Posh design team! I've been a big fan of PPP since her shop first opened. If you've been following PPP from the beginning, as well, you may have already seen some of my work with Paulina's Shop, including the grand opening blog hop. I just love all of the products that PPP carries and I love how they add a little something special to my cards. Since the opening of her shop, Paulina, has also added so many other great products to her collection of items and they are all so great.

Now that you've read the awesome news you can go play a fun game Paulina created and get a chance to win a $50 Pretty Pink Posh gift card. Below is a collection of cards, each of the girls on the DT (including the three new designers) have created one of the cards shown in the game image and all you have to do is guess which card/letter belongs to which designer. Super fun and simple right?!

To make things a little bit easier we're each going to give a little hint as to which cards is ours; so, here is mine: These are on high demand during summer months. I hope that gets you one step closer to winning the prize! Now that you have your hint head on over to the PPP blog by, clicking here, and leave your answers in the the comments.  Good luck and thank you for stopping by!

Bridal Shower DIY

This weekend I had the pleasure of helping out with a bridal shower for my boyfriends cousin, Nancy. She is such a nice person so I jumped at the chance to help out with organizing the party decor, invitations, favors, etc. Let's be honest--I always jump at the chance to design for a party because I love it so much! If you've been a blog follower of mine since the very first post you may already know that my entire paper crafting journey started with a party. In case you don't know how I got started in the paper crafting world I'll give you a quick recap.

When I found out my brother was going to be a dad I was so excited because this meant I would be an aunt and it would be our families first grandchild. So, I immediately thought of ideas for the baby shower. Since it was my first baby shower I did lots of online research and I googled party themes and ideas (I don't know if pinterest existed yet). Then I took the next step which was head over to the craft store and start buying things for the party and for the first time I stopped in the rubber stamp section and looked for any stamps that had bumble bees on them because I choose the theme 'Mommy to bee' for the theme. I made tags, for this party, the floral arrangements, the candy table--you name it, I did it. Fast forward to when the party is over, and I found myself sad because I didn't have a reason to use all the paper crafting tools that I'd purchased from the store so I thought to myself, "what if I just make party decor and sell it so that I could craft all the time" because all I wanted to do with my time was make pretty little things and share them with the world. So that's when I started my Etsy shop, and the rest was history from there. One day I wanted to add Hanukkah cards to my shop so I googled Hanukkah stamps and I found Lawn Fawn via google; and, once I found LF I was hooked for life from there, hehe. So, I owe my whole paper craft career to my love for throwing a great party and I don't think I'll ever stop helping out with parties. I also don't charge for parties that I help with. I love them so much that I do them for free--mostly for friends and family. It's usually always only people I know personally.

Now back to, Nancy's, bridal shower. She loves anything shabby chic and vintagey so I wanted to incorporate that into this party. She also loves succulents,  and burlap so I tried to include all of those things into the decor for this party. What I love about planning a small party is that you don't need to spend tons of money at the store to pull off a very elegant and pretty event. I like to put lots of little details on things that can be made at home and then I shop for strong statement pieces much like the vintage candle boxes shown in the images above. Making a tassel garland is pretty tedious but it can add so much to a space and brighten it up so well. The bride to be actually wanted the tissue paper pom-poms I convinced her that tassel garlands are so much pretty and totally on trend right now, hehe. She loved them!

Aside from the light boxes, I also purchased some medium and small size pots for the succulents that would go on the tables. Some of them were painted in mint or peach, and the larger pots already came in this muted green color (which was so pretty). I purchased the Martha Stewart spray system and I have to say I was so disappointed with it. I bought it after watching a DIY tutorial on how to use it but it didn't work as great in person. I ended up just painted the pots by hand.

I hired my little sister, Melanie for the cake pops, min cupcakes, and cheesecake shooters and they not only looked amazing but they tasted great as well! She is so talented at what she does. I made the cake because I really love making cakes, lol. I also used this opportunity to try out one of my new products. The 'Love' cake topper--which will be available in my shop very soon.

This party was so much fun and I can't wait for another chance to help with a party again soon. Thank you so much of stopping by and please let me know if you have any questions about anything in the comments below!

Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week--Wheelie Like You

Today I created something a little different compared to all of my pastely and bright cards. I actually found the inspiration for this particular card on Pinterest one day when I was browsing. I thought this would look really sweet on a card using the little critter image from the mini stamp set, Wheelie like you. I love that this card is dark but it's still cute and romantic with the shadow of the moon. If you take a close look at this card you'll notice it's a one layer card. I did a lot of masking and used a variety of distress inks to achieve this look, as well. I think the hardest part of creating this card was having to hand draw the shadows of the guinea pig using a dark gray Copic marker. I also wish that my camera would have picked up on how awesome the moon really looked in person. I did some soft watercoloring to make the moon look life like and neon.

I also had fun using some of the darker pattern papers form the awesome 6x6 Beach Side petite paper pack. That pack of papers has so many great patterns and I love all of the darker hues in that collection.

Lawn Fawn always does such an amazing job of packaging such cute images and sentiments into their mini stamp sets, and this one is no exception. There is so much you can do with this set and if you need a little more inspiration using this set you can ahead over to the Lawn Fawn blog by, clicking here. On their blog you can view all of the DT samples and even leave a comment for a chance to win this set, too!

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope you were inspired!

Lawn Fawn Inspiration Week--Critters In The Jungle

I love creating cards for inspiration week--and I hope you've enjoyed all of the cards the Lawn Fawn design team has created thus far. Today we are creating with the adorable stamp set, Critters in the Jungle. I absolutely love this set. The adorable images and sweet sentiments are so much fun to create with. I think you may have noticed that my favorite image in this set is the elephant. Lawn Fawn images are always so adorable and irresistible! What's create is that this stamp set (like many other LF sets) comes with so many little images and elements to create a scene on  your card.

Aside from using the, Critters in the Jungle stamp set and it's coordinating dies, I also used the mini set, Love you Tons, for the "Love you Tons" sentiment. For the shaker window and panel I used the stitched rectangle stackables as well as the Stitched Squares Stackables dies. When I was creating this card I was thinking of using a plain white card base (to go behind the shaker panel) but this card was fun and colorful so I thought it would be nice to have a bit of color in the background so I pulled out my trusty Lawn Fawn 6x6 paper pad--the Let's Polka Mon Amie collection and used this green striped paper, mint line dance. For a bit of added charm I also used some of the new lawn trimmings in Tangerine. For the shaker I used the new Lime Sorbet sequins by Pretty Pink Posh as well as the Marshmallow sequins, and Sparkling clear sequins.

I hope you've enjoyed this card and thank you so much for stopping by!

Dream Big--Pretty Pink Posh, Stitched Banner Duo

I thought it would be fun to create a custom banner for my craft room--So I'm using the Stitched Banner duo dies by, Pretty Pink Posh, to make it! This banner die is so adorable and mini--which makes for a cute banner. Not only could you use this die to create banners but you could also use it as a panel for a greeting card, a tag for a oversized treat bag, or even a cake topper! The possibilities are endless this with this great product. I'm so happy that the stitching detail on stand alone dies is popular right now because it adds so much to an otherwise plain banner shape. I always get asked about the stitch detail on dies from individuals that don't craft so I know it's a hit with everyone!

I love that this duo die set also comes with a stitched square die! It's so great to have some variety in a die set and you could use the stitched square die for so many other things like, cupcake toppers, details for card fronts, or you can use them to cut out windows for shaker cards.

I chose the saying, "Dream Big" to remind myself to keep improving my craft and to always remember to dream big; or, bigger! As a (very small, haha) business owner I'm always thinking of ways to take my shop to the next level or offer more products. So, this reminder will always keep me on my toes.

Thank you so much for stopping by!